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City, state wildlife personnel to meet over multiple cases of aggression

By Charlie Brennan Camera Staff Writer

Posted:
01/02/2013 06:58:45 PM MST

Updated:
01/02/2013 06:59:52 PM MST

Reporting aggressive animals

Anyone with reports of aggressive wild animals is asked to contact Colorado Parks and Wildlife between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. at 303-291-7227, or, if it is after hours, to call the Colorado State Patrol at 303-239-4501, and the report will be forwarded to wildlife personnel. Such reports also may be phoned in to the Boulder Police Department's non-emergency number, 303-441-3333.

Foot patrols by open space rangers are being stepped up in areas near the Boulder Creek Path in east Boulder in the wake of a Saturday attack in which a jogger was bitten in the calf by a coyote.

Saturday's incident came on the heels of two prior aggressive coyote reports in the same area, one of which featured a coyote lunging aggressively at the feet of a commuting cyclist.

"We're definitely talking with Boulder, and trying to figure out what we want to do out in that area," said Jennifer Churchill, spokeswoman for Colorado Parks and Wildlife. "It's certainly a concern to us that we have aggression out there by a coyote or coyotes.

"We will be looking into this, and figuring out what will be best for the citizens of Boulder."

An adult woman was jogging in the area of the University of Colorado Research Park, just south of the Boulder Creek Path, east of 30th Street and just west of Foothills Parkway, when she spotted a coyote with its prey, according to Matheson.

"While she was looking at it, a second coyote came close to her from behind. She wasn't (initially) aware of that second one," Matheson said.

When the jogger realized there was a second coyote behind her, she first yelled and waved her arms -- behavior that wildlife experts recommend.

Then, she did something that is not recommended. She turned and ran.

"I think turning your back and running away is a bad idea, because all the bites we've had have been in the back of the calf, and it seems like turning around and running is allowing an opportunity" for the animal to attack, Matheson said.

The woman initially felt a nipping at her heels, then the sudden sharp pain of a bite to her calf. It was only after a man who was in the area came to the jogger's assistance that the two were able to chase the aggressive coyote away. She was treated later that morning at Boulder Community Hospital, Matheson said, and the hospital in turn made a report to a city Open Space and Mountain Parks ranger.

Recent aggression

Two prior incidents occurred just east of where Saturday's biting took place.

On the morning of Dec. 24, a woman walking her friend's standard poodle was menaced by a coyote on the Boulder Creek Path, just west of 55th Street. It took swats from a stick the woman grabbed, and the intervention of her dog, to chase that coyote away.

That was followed by an episode Dec. 27, when a cyclist was chased and almost bitten on the Boulder Creek Path, while cycling on the north side of the creek near the 4700 block of Walnut Street.

Devising a plan

A meeting is set for Friday between city personnel and Colorado Parks and Wildlife staff to come up with a specific plan to address the recent series of aggressive coyote reports in a relatively concentrated area.

"I can't say exactly what the next steps will be," Matheson said. "In the past, when a person has been bitten, an officer has destroyed a coyote" behaving aggressively. The most recent example of a problem coyote being put down in that area came in November 2011.

And in the meantime, patrols by city open space rangers have been stepped up in the area, for the purposes both informing the public about the existing danger, and potentially making first-hand observations of any aggressive wildlife behavior.

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